An old song. It looks as if it were filched from "The Grey Goose and the Gled," the last stanza especially.

It fell about the blythe New Year,⁠When days are short and nights are lang,
Ae bonie night, the starns were clear,⁠An' frost beneath my fit-stead rang;
I heard a carlin cry "relief!"⁠Atweesh her trams a birkie lay;
But he wan a quarter in her beef,⁠For a' the jirts the carlin gae.

She heaved tae, and he strak frae,⁠As he wad nail'd the carlin thro';
An ilka f—t the carlin gae,⁠It wad hae fill'd a pockie fou;
Temper your tail, the young man cried,⁠Temper your tail by Venus' law I
Double your dunts, the dame replied,⁠Wha the deil can hinder the wind tae blaw?